The IT Girl: Creators
Meet the team that created the New York premiere of The IT Girl...
BT McNICHOLL (Lyricist/Co-Author/Director) was the Associate Director for master directors Sam Mendes, Jerry Zaks, Stephen Daldry, David Hare, James Lapine and Mike Nichols on 12 Broadway plays and musicals including the Tony-winning Billy Elliot, Spamalot, and Cabaret. He's staged hit productions for regional theaters such Goodspeed Opera House (Best Musical), Ogunquit Playhouse (Moss Hart Award) and Walnut Street Playhouse (Kleban Award). Overseas, he staged the European premiere of The Producers for Mel Brooks and record-setting runs of Cabaret in Paris, Madrid and Sydney (where he won won the Australian "Tony" Award -- the Helpmann -- for Best Director). In family entertainment, he directed the first stage musical version of Winnie the Pooh for Disney/Feld and created three IAPPA Award-winning productions for Sea World and Busch Gardens. Winner of a BMI Award and a Drama League grant, McNicholl wrote the book for a musical at Madison Square Garden, directed new works at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center and produced the 10th Anniversary Concert production of Sunday in the Park with George: In Concert with Bernadette Peters, Mandy Patinkin and the original cast on Broadway. Working with legendary writers Betty Comden and Adolph Green, he directed Kristin Chenoweth in their musical Billion Dollar Baby at the York Theatre Company and also produced the show's critically acclaimed cast album. He is now Producing Artistic Director of the Tony-award nominated La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts in Los Angeles.
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JERRY ZAKS (Production Consultant) has directed over 20 productions both on and off-Broadway, as well as the Oscar nominated film Marvin's Room. He has received four Tonys, four Drama Desks, two Outer Critics Circle Awards, an Obie, a Drama-Logue, and a NAACP Image Award nomination. He served as Resident Director at Lincoln Center Theater from 1986-1990, is a founding member of the Ensemble Studio Theatre, and is currently happily affiliated with Jujamcyn Theaters. A graduate of Dartmouth with an MFA from Smith, he received the George Abbott Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theater in 1994, and an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from Dartmouth in 1999.
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PAUL MCKIBBINS (Music, Orchestrations) has had compositions and arrangements performed by the NY Philharmonic, Cincinnati Pops orchestra, Alvin Ailey Dance Company, NY Pops and many others. Composer-In-Residence: University of Bridgeport (1986-1990). TV: The Muppets (Emmy Nomination), The Sunshine Boys. Film: Unzipped, Suspicion. Theater: I Hear Music! Songs of Burton Lane (Co-Conceiver/Arranger). Ballet: Suite of Night Waltzes (with Ann Reinking), Morgause (with Courtney Conner). Recordings: Follies (1998, Producer), Setting Standards (Producer/Arranger), "Suite of Dances" from West Side Story (Arranger), and many instrumentals. Administrator of music rights for Sondheim, Kander & Ebb, Maltby & Shire, and Wright & Forrest. B. Mus., M. Mus., Manhattan School of Music.
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MICHAEL SMALL (Co-Author) is the author of the new musical The History of Light, which features reinvented Gilbert and Sullivan songs and had a reading at L.A.'s La Mirada Theatre in 2018. His farce Kaboom! played to packed houses in the 2008 New York International Fringe Festival. Other plays include: We'll Be Fine and Got You (read at NYC's HOWL Festival), Beautiful Foolish Arms (read by Naked Angels at The Players Club), and The Cool Club, performed at New York's CBGB 313. After graduating from Harvard, Small studied playwriting at Playwrights Horizons and NYU. He now works at NBC News Digital.
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ALBIN KONOPKA (Music Director) has enjoyed a long and successful international career. Besides his credits on numerous Broadway shows, he has performed in over 24 countries on 6 continents. He has worked as a producer, composer, musical director/supervisor, vocal and dance arranger and orchestrator. He has written two musicals: Ambra (in Italian) and She Schtups To Conquer. He is fluent in 5 languages and has a Masters from the Juilliard School of Music. He has produced and tried to direct and supervise his two children, Alba and Carolyn with somewhat limited success.
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ROBERT BIANCA (Choreographer) worked on MTC's production of A Class Act. Robert has choreographed at North Carolina Theatre and worked on the workshop of The Royal Family. Robert has performed in Cats, was involved in the original Fosse project, and was chosen by Gwen Verdon to dance lead roles in Lincoln Center's concert version of Sweet Charity.
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STEVE SMITH (Silent Movie Sequences) Writer/director/producer
/performer/teacher/comic spirit. Ringling Bros. Clown College, 1971. BFA Acting - Goodman School of Drama, 1977. Director of Clown College - 1985-1995. Co-creator/Director - 123rd Edition of The Greatest Show On Earth, 1992. Chuck Jones Film Productions, 1996-1997. Honors: Medal of Merit - Notable Achievement in Performing Arts, Ohio University; The Theatre School/DePaul University Award for Excellence in the Arts; ACT - Action For Children's Television Award, and, for outstanding achievement in children's television, five Emmy Awards.
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MARK NAYDEN (Set Designer) Productions: Once On This Island, The Telephone & The Medium, and Five Guys Named Moe. Other designs include Cloud 9, Rags, Children of Eden, and Furious (set and costumes). Broadway: Associate: An Inspector Calls (Broadway and Tour), Translations, and Indiscretions. Opera: Street Scene, Savitri, Trouble in Tahiti. He designed Excelsior, Best of NY 2000, NY Magazine. He is a member of USA Local 829.
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ROBIN L. MCGEE (Costume Designer) Design credits include The Friars Club Roast of Jerry Stiller on Comedy Central; Clown designer at the Ringling Brothers & Barnum and Bailey Circus; Tommy at Northshore Music Theatre; South Pacific, Saturday Night and My Fair Lady at the Weston Playhouse and Little Shop of Horrors, Man of La Mancha and West Side Story at Theatrefest. Design Assistant credits include The Diary of Anne Frank on Broadway; several national and International tours of Disney's Beauty and the Beast. Robin holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Texas and is a member of the United Scenic Artists.
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JEFF NELLIS (Lighting Designer) Off-Broadway productions include Cobb, Our Sinatra, The Devil's Music, An American Family, 2 1/2 Jews, Coyote on a Fence, Men on the Verge of an His-panic Breakdown, and My Italy Story. Regional designs include the Alley Theatre, Bay Street Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Trinity Repertory Theatre, and Florida Stage.
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ELAINE J. MCCARTHY (Projection Designer) Broadway: Into the Woods, Judgment at Nuremberg (National Actors Theatre), The Green Bird (Julie Taymor). Off-Broadway: Boys Don't Wear Lipstick (Players Theatre), Goodbye My Friduchita (Directors Company), Don Byron's Tunes & 'Toons (BAM), The Woman in Black and A Coffin in Egypt (Bay Street Theatre), An Empty Plate in the Cafe du Grand Boeuf (Primary Stages). Regional Theatre: Songs From the Tall Grass (Ford's Theatre), Eleanor: An American Love Story (Duke University and Ford's Theatre), Blue Man Group: Tubes (Chicago). National Tours: Forgiveness (Chen Shi Zheng), Spirit (Back Row Productions). Opera/Dance: War and Peace (Kirov Opera), Tan Dun's The Gate (NHK Symphony orchestra), Art Spiegelman's comic book opera Drawn to Death (Harvard University), Peter Sellar's The Peony Pavilion (Vienna Opera), Tosca (Opera Festival of New Jersey), Portraits of the Family (Cloud Gate Dance Theatre), Remote (White Oak Dance Project), Philip Glass and Susan Marshall's Les Enfants Terribles (IPA).
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